MARIAN AND MARION
By
The setting is a tiny coastal village in the Netherlands for an utterly charming and wholly satisfying story for little girls of the age that delight in The Little Princess. There's something of that quality in the personalities of the little American girl, Marion, shipwrecked and rescued by the villagers, and her friend, Marian- called Janne, the rather stolid little Dutch girl who befriends her and longs to share her soaring imagination. The story is amusing, beautifully written, and has a spark of something new to tell and something to say about people of other lands. Janne feels it is her own triumph over the unimaginative villagers when her new friend's talent as a dancer is recognized and she goes off to the big city to study.